Conservation Law Foundation says it will sue Central Landfill and Broadrock Renewables

JOHNSTON — The state’s Central Landfill has repeatedly violated federal environmental laws by emitting landfill gases in volumes that exceed limits and by operating for 16 years without a permit required...

JOHNSTON — The state’s Central Landfill has repeatedly violated federal environmental laws by emitting landfill gases in volumes that exceed limits and by operating for 16 years without a permit required under the Clean Air Act, according to a notice mailed Thursday by the Conservation Law Foundation.

The Boston-based nonprofit foundation sent the notice to the landfill’s operator, the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, to meet the legal requirements in advance of filing a lawsuit against the agency in federal court.

The notice alleges “significant fugitive gas emissions are occurring at the landfill.”

“Fugitive landfill gas threatens public health, disrupts the quality of life for many living near and around the landfill and contributes to climate change,” says the notice.

The foundation said it also intends to sue Broadrock Renewables, a private company that has gas-fueled power plants at the landfill and also operates the facility’s gas collection system. The power plants are not currently operating because of shutdown orders by the town, which cited “makeshift equipment and the venting of gases into the atmosphere” at one plant and an explosion and fire Tuesday at the other plant.

The decomposition of trash generates variousgases, including methane — a fuel for power generation — and hydrogen sulfide, known by its rotten-egg smell.

The foundation’s legal notice says the landfill’s own monitoring data show repeated violations of federal laws and regulations governing the capture and treatment of such landfill gases.

For example, during one three-month period in 2012, volumes of methane released into the atmosphere exceeded limits on 23 occasions, says the notice.

Well-heads nestled deep within the mounds of trash at the landfill are designed to capture the gases and feed them into a network of pipes, which take the gases to the power-generating facilities or to flares that burn them off.

The presence of oxygen in such well-heads indicates insufficient gas collection, but monitoring data show that oxygen levels in 145 different well-heads exceeded limits during the second half of 2012, the notice says. The data, it says, also show that wells were flooded with water.

The legal notice says the foundation intends to rely on such data to prove that since January 2011, Resource Recovery and Broadrock, which owns the gas collection system, have been in “continuous violation” of performance standards established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

As a “major source” of emissions, capable of emitting 913 tons of sulfur dioxide — well above the 100-ton standard, Resource Recovery must have a permit under the Clean Air Act, the notice says.

Resource Recovery applied for a permit in 2000, three years after it was required to, but no permit was ever issued, it says.

“The landfill has been operating illegally for 16 years, which is inexcusable and irresponsible,” the Conservation Law Foundation’s Rhode Island director, Tricia K. Jedele, said in a news release. “The entire purpose of having an operating permit is to protect public health and safety.”

“We’re unaware of any of this at this point,” Resource Recovery’s general counsel, Joseph Rodio, said Thursday evening. “We haven’t received notice of the suit and we haven’t received notice that we’re not in compliance with clean air standards.”